Sabotage! Tories accused of wrecking TV election debates

The Conservative Party has been accused of deliberately sabotaging pre-election TV debates under the guise of a protest against Ofcom’s refusal to recognize the Green Party as a significant enough player to participate.

The debates were
scheduled to take place in the run-up to May’s General
Election.

Prime Minister David Cameron announced on Thursday he was
“unlikely” to take part after a provisional ruling by
media regulator Ofcom said the Greens were not a “major
party” and would therefore not be included.

Cameron claimed it was unfair to give the UK Independence Party
(UKIP) a voice in the debates without including the Greens.

He further said he didn’t think “the current proposals
work,” adding “you can’t have one minor party without
having another minor party and I think that’s only fair.”

The Telegraph, however, reported talks between the parties due to
take part in the debates had broken down, with the Conservatives
attempting to introduce difficult measures.

The only parties present in the discussions were Labour, the
Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and UKIP.

The newspaper reported the discussions had broken down and
representatives from the parties had already privately agreed the
debates were unlikely to go ahead.

Labour, LibDem and UKIP
representatives had apparently all agreed to the Ofcom proposal
that the debates should take place in March and April, but the
Conservatives asked for them to be moved back to January.

The Tories were also reported to have objected to the proposed
formatting of the debates. Ofcom proposed the season of televised
exchanges would begin with a debate featuring all four party
leaders, followed by one with Clegg, Cameron and Miliband,
culminating in a head-to-head between the Conservatives and
Labour alone.

The Conservatives even requested the Northern Irish Democratic
Unionist Party (DUP) be included. A Labour source told the
newspaper the party themselves had not requested to take part.